Birthright, and the responsibilities that come with it
by Tyrannicide
Summary: This work depicts Raven's conflicting thoughts regarding the events at Altera, the choices and consequences which haunted him, and how he got over them.


A war was waged in Altera island between two factions: the automatons calling themselves "Nasods" and a group of fighters known as El Search Party, with supports from the Ponggos race. The conflict had progressed for a while by then and although as unlikely as it seemed to be at first glance, the El Search party had had the upper hand thus far and been defeating their Nasod enemies left and right, encroaching nearer and nearer toward the central hearth of Nasod controlled territories, leaving countless destruction in their wake.

Essentially the El gang threw a spanner into the works at Altera's Nasod Foundry, sabotaging as many machines and destroying as many Nasods as they could. When they forced their way through to the area of Foundry's elevator, they encountered… it: a Nasod pattern which they had never seen before, right hand holding a sword and left hand looking like claws.

Elsword pointed at the enemy they just encountered:

_ Isn't that Nasod looking similar to Raven?

Everyone were surprised, especially Raven, he was astonished. The enemy they just encountered was technically not the first Nasod that Raven knew of which was similar to himself though. Raven recalled the time when he was still enthralled under King Nasod's mind control, he was utilized by the Nasods as a way for them to learn Kinaz techniques from him! There was a Training Nasod type S pattern with codename "Chirox" which having sparred with Raven many time, its learning algorithms adapted by collecting data when sparring and it had learned how to perform both the Kinaz's sword and gauntlet fighting techniques from Raven.

Raven wondered was it Chirox that stood before him. The Nasod in front of him had many differences compared to Chirox, especially its color schemes. Suddenly the Nasod spoke in human language, albeit with a robotic monotone:

_ Dear brother!

El gang's jaws were dropped, they slowly turned to look at Raven. Raven couldn't believe in his ears: did that Nasod just called him "brother"?

Raven pointed his blade at the Nasod and asked:

_ Is that you, Chirox? Who the hell you are calling brother?

The Nasod answered:

_ Oh, you'd point a weapon at your own brother? Fine then, if you insist. I self-identify as a unit belongs to the designated Crow Rider pattern. Speaking about Chirox, I admit my data was collected from him who in turn collected data from you at the first place, Kane.

The Nasod's words confused Raven, but he tried to suppress his emotions. Moments later he replied:

_ Who's Kane?

_ You are. When His Highness created you, you was designated with the codename Kane.

_ Me? I'm Raven Cronwell.

_ I'm not talking about your humankind heritages.

Raven suddenly felt his Nasod Arm was inadvertently shaking, somewhat out of control. For some reasons he was struck with a hunch that the "Kane" which the Nasod mentioned was the Nasod which by then constituted half of his body and had been co-existing with biological parts of him.

Raven sighed, then explained to the El gang and Ponggos there:

_ That Crow Rider, it doesn't just look similar to me. They used data collected from me to make Nasod soldiers utilizing the combat techniques they learned from me at the first place…

_ Whaaaat?

Aisha uttered in surprise.

_ Are you ready now, my brother?

Crow Rider said as if it had grown impatient when El gang kept it waiting:

_ Are you intending to buy time with these conversations? Are you experiencing what your human half perceives as fear? You should be, as I'm completely a Nasod, and you're merely a half. Father also made me and my armaments with latest technologies, improved from additional data he collected from when you was still fighting for us. I may have originated from you, but I take pride in the fact that I have surpassed you, and I will prove it, by defeating you here, and making you regret having deserted and abandoned our causes.

Upon hearing the gloating and taunts from the Crow Rider, Raven was worried when feeling his Nasod Arm was even harder to control than before, it heated up and twitching without Raven's consents. Raven feared that "Kane" would take over his mind and turning him back to the state of under King Nasod's control again. But so far he felt no sign of mental shackles, only surging strong emotions – the emotions which didn't originate from Raven. For some reasons Raven could feel the blinding anger and envy were erupting inside him, which he couldn't explain why…

His Nasod Arm was suddenly twitching even more out of control now, and Raven's intuition told him that such emotions came from Kane – his Nasod half. Could it be that Kane itself was feeling angry and envious upon learning about what Crow Rider just said? Raven knew that he had to defeat the Crow Rider, but it was Kane who craved to terminate the Crow Rider with extreme prejudice.

Feeling he couldn't hold back any longer, Raven declared:

_ No matter what, even without your provocations I still have no intention to let you get away at the first place!

Raven charged at Crow Rider, while Kane's murderous rage was screaming and echoing inside his mind.

...

Raven removed the mask of the defeated Crow Rider. He was shocked upon witnessing his face looking back at him from under the mask. Probably it was a backup version, so in case the original Raven was unavailable, King Nasod would use the Crow Rider to continue Raven's works in his stead. The main difference between them was that the Crow Rider was completely a machine which just happened to be specifically tailored to resemble Raven's appearances.

* * *

The fight against the previous Crow Rider saddened Raven Cronwell for reasons he could surely feel but couldn't understand. At that point he had doubts regarding his choices, and in a moment when a mood swing weakened his resolve, he even briefly considered letting the El gang to fight against King Nasod without him.

Raven wasn't afraid of fighting. Just that he had conflicting thoughts and feeling that he couldn't stand to face King Nasod. Beside having misgivings considering Raven would have to fight against someone who saved his life, the existence of King Nasod also reminded Raven of a traumatic period he wanted to forget and he would rather choose to die than having to live through it again.

So in a depressed mood, Raven partly felt he didn't want the day after – the day they would assault Altera Core – to come. Feeling restless, he decided to check on his Black Crows subordinates. When Raven arrived at their living quarter allocated to them by the Ponggos at Altera town, he was greeted with a very warm welcome by Black Crows members…They hang out for a while and chatting, which lifted Raven's spirit up.

Raven kept silent for a while, he observed the Black Crows soldiers while thinking. They were originally normal humans, who were took by King Nasod and then brainwashed so that they couldn't remember their past lives and they were very willing to follow the orders. They were augmented through artificial means in an attempt to create super soldiers.

Raven recalled the time he went around Ponggo's town, inviting all sorts of Ponggo's technicians and scientists to examine the Black Crows, he asked every of them whether Nasod's augmentations on Black Crows' soldiers could be reversed and their memories being recovered, but…

_ I'm sorry pong, but that's beyond my capabilities.

_ It's impossible to reverse what the Nasods have done to them, pong.

That was a new source of grief for Raven since after he and Black Crows had escaped influences of King Nasod. Because he couldn't give back to Black Crows soldiers the lives they themselves couldn't even remember, he felt he had the responsibilities to rehabilitate them and giving them new lives. Raven couldn't shake off him the thought that he still owed them...

So by then, when looking around their living quarter at Ponggo's town, Raven felt helpless. Because of the state of minds of Black Crows, they were programmed by the Nasods to blindly obedient to Raven, their brainwashing and augmentations made them super soldier but beside soldiering they were hardly anything else. They had very dull personalities, having developed little to no personal interests of their own. When thinking about them Raven had to try his best to not shed his tears because of pity.

Then Raven's mind again wandered to the upcoming mission which they had to face King Nasod. He could feel sympathy for the villain, since at the end of the day King Nasod was fighting for the very existence of his own race. King Nasod also saved him, so wouldn't that be ungrateful to fight against his savior?

But when considering the scenario if King Nasod won, Ruben would be in ruin because of losing its El stone forever and King Nasod could subsequently wipe out the Ponggo and Black Crows, and then maybe even humanity. So wouldn't that mean the transhuman race which Raven and Black Crows belonged to would be wiped out instead?

That thought gave Raven a brand new motivation to fight against King Nasod. If King Nasod fought for the existence of his race, so too, Raven fought to preserve his own race, the... transhuman race. The motivations of punishing evils, getting back the El shard and saving one's own race from extinction combined outweigh the motivation to spare King Nasod because he saved Raven.

Raven reasoned, in the ancient time, King Nasod also rebelled against humans who created but enslaved him and the Nasod race at the first place. So why would this time his rebellion against King Nasod not as justified as… the cause of King Nasod's in the past?

With that in mind, Raven heaved a sigh of relief. He had found the reason, the perfect _casus belli_* he had been searching for. From that point Raven no longer doubted his decision to fight against King Nasod.

Ironically, in a way the event would go down in history as a struggle between two first members of their respective races, the struggle between the first of the Second-generation-Nasods and the first transhuman!

* * *

Later on when El Search Party arrived at Feita, Raven Cronwell decided to take a walk near the tower of Feita, where he stumbled upon an old chapel. Raven heaved a sigh, then entered it. He was in need of someone to hear from him, since he had suppressed his feelings and thoughts deep down as he didn't feel like expressing them with any El gang member. Raven thought as least a priest could give him some life coaching advice.

The chapel belonged to one of the smaller religious sects which worshiped Ishamel, called The Church of Eastern Lightning. Raven had heard about this religious sect before, but by then that knowledge left very little impression in his mind regarding this Eastern Lightning sect thing.

He stepped inside the confession both, in which the confessor and the adherent would be free to converse while both of them couldn't see each other's faces. After having sat down, Raven heard a warm and clear voice:

_ Welcome to the house of gods, brethren. Are you seeking for guidance, perhaps?

Raven kept silent for a while, and was about to tell the true story, then he stopped. If he told the confessor about Nasods and the bizarre things happened in Altera island, would anyone actually believe it? The hearer might think of him as being crazy and just imagining things. More importantly Raven preferred keeping the details of what happened at Altera a secret to safeguard the El Search Party, as disclosing about the party's activities could be detrimental to the missions and even their very safety in the future. Raven had learned that he couldn't entrust anyone completely, a lesson which he had paid dearly for – he inadvertently looking down at his Nasod Arm while contemplating.

So Raven began to think of a way to narrate his story so that what he was about to say would still technically be true, just that leaving out the details which he found dangerous to expose or hard to believe:

_ I'm here to confess my sins. I was born to a family of an impoverished patrician who had long gone into seclusion after they had lost everything in a winner-takes-all war for supremacy, a really long time ago. My… father wanted to regain what the House had lost, and he went to extreme lengths to see it through. He forced me, no, he… enthralled me to do works for him. Under his command, I led a group of corsairs to rob and pillage properties of other people to fund my father's projects. I was heartbroken because of griefs and guilt but I couldn't act against my father's wills, until that day…

That day I fought against a group of heroes who liberated me from my father's influences and my conscience was touched. They said they wanted to retrieve something valuable which I robbed from them before,however previously I had already handed that thing to my father. So I went with them to help retrieving that thing. On the way we encountered my… little brother. He wanted to stop me and didn't hesitate to attack us. I had no choice but to… to kill him, before he could further carry out more of the evil deeds under orders of my father, in the future.

Then we found my father, he didn't want to give up the thing we sought from him, so we fought, and we ended up… killing him in process. By that time we had almost killed the whole House, with only one person left alive. That person was my… sister, who had just waken up from a very long coma only to find that we had killed everyone. I felt distrustful and anxious when I was around her, and kept a distance from her as I had few ideas how to treat her…

I am now devastated, to say the least. I am not even sure I can tell what is good or what is bad anymore… So please tell me one thing, how can I atone for the deeds I have committed? How can I lift the feelings of griefs as heavy as a huge boulder on my chest?

After Raven stopped talking and began to grab his chest while gasping for air because of his sudden surge of emotions, the surroundings fell into silent for a while, until the confessor began to answer:

_ Dear fellow, I have heard your story. I have to admit that your tragic life is full of sadness and sorrows, which stands out as a very rare case among the people I have listened to over the years. But don't lose hope, for you're still salvageable. Normally I can only advise you to fast, pray and do charity so that you may be forgiven. But we have no time for that now, you can earn salvation much faster through doing favors for Ishmael and the people of Elrios. I remember you told me that you could fight. I propose, I beseech you, going out there and bring the fight to the demons who are invading and tainting our world, threatening to extinguish all lives in Elrios. Through banishing the enemies of humanity and Ishamel, you will earn salvation. I will pray for you like I have prayed for the defenders of mankind who are struggling against the demons.

Raven suddenly stood up from the wooden bench after the revelation:

_ So all I need to do is going out there and kill the demons?

_ Yes, sonny. This is an once in a lifetime godsend chance for you to earn salvation quickly. Ishamel will indeed be much more pleased with this form of devotion than normally could have been.

_ I have made up my mind, thank you confessor, thank you.

_ Thank you too, my brethren. Gods bless you, Amen.

* * *

**Note:**

_*Casus belli_: Latin expression for "an act or event that provokes or is used to justify war".


End file.
